Philadelphia Eagles send project O-Lineman Jordan Mailata to IR
Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jordan Mailata lands on the Injured Reserve for the second season in a row.
The Philadelphia Eagles can’t shake the injury bug for the third season in a row. As their ridiculously long injury report continues to expand, the Eagles need to start making roster moves in order to obtain replacements for those who are out temporarily.
This week, they could be without two of their five total wideouts. Therefore, the Eagles needed to call somebody up from the practice squad. That somebody ended up being preseason standout, Greg Ward Jr.
In order to get Ward on the Eagles main roster though, Philly had to either cut somebody or send one of their injured players to the injured reserve. Well, they made their decision on Saturday, and it turns out the Rugby-turned-football player Jordan Mailata will land on the IR for the second year in a row. The move made sense, but it’s pretty unfortunate.
Lately, Mailata hasn’t been able to practice. The last time he saw the field was during the third week of the preseason. Since then, he’s been battling through a back injury, which has kept him sidelined. At this point, they have no other option but to create a roster spot by deactivating him.
Why did the Eagles wait?
Why would the Eagles wait to deactivate Mailata if they technically weren’t going to use him at all this season if healthy? Well, it’s simple — now that he’s on the injured reserve, the Eagles cannot develop Mailata with the team further when he gets healthy.
Once a player lands on the IR, they aren’t able to keep practicing with the team, unless the plan is to have them return from the reserve. And each team only has two players they can bring back. Considering that Mailata most likely wouldn’t play at all this year anyway, there’s no reason to waste that selection on him.
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It’s an extremely unfortunate situation since Mailata needs the most practice experience out of anybody. But at this point, he wasn’t really able to practice anyway. We never heard about an official diagnosis or timetable regarding Mailata’s back, but clearly, it’s pretty serious since it’s been lingering for over a month now.